A Thunderbolt from the sky..A thunderbolt that could make change.A Thunderbolt that will tear apart the black clouds of imperialism and communalism that had covered India.Yes change is inevitable..Change will Come..

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Statement Issued by CPIM Maharashtra State Commitee

The
CPI(M) has always had sharp political differences with the Shiv Sena
(SS) and its leader the late Mr Bal Keshav Thackeray. Under his
leadership, the SS always played upon the reactionary politics of
identity, which diverted attention from the grave problems facing the
people of Maharashtra.

First, the CPI(M) has resolutely been
opposed to the violent culture of regional chauvinism practiced by the
Shiv Sena, and now also by its breakaway organisation, the MNS. Mr
Thackeray began his politics by portraying the south Indian community of
Mumbai as stealing the jobs of Maharashtrians, and later expanded the
same logic to migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Enmity, thus,
became the basis of his party's programme, which was in complete
contradiction to the spirit of unity put forward by the Samyukta
Maharashtra movement that was effectively led in the 1950s by the Left
and secular forces, comprising the Communist Party, Praja Samajwadi
Party, Peasants and Workers Party and Republican Party.

Secondly, the Shiv Sena ideology was deeply communal and the CPI(M) has
consistently fought this ideology. In 1992, Mr Thackeray welcomed the
demolition of the Babri Masjid. The Shiv Sena was deeply complicit in
the Mumbai riots and the violence against Muslims after the Babri
demolition, and this role of the Shiv Sena and Mr Thackeray was detailed
with evidence by the Justice Srikrishna Commission of Enquiry. Not
surprisingly, the Srikrishna Commission Report was rejected out of hand
by the then SS-BJP state government.

Thirdly, the Shiv Sena's
politics was deeply anti-working class and anti-communist, and in this
it received the full and consistent support of successive Congress
governments and of the big capitalists of Mumbai. In the late 1960s, it
were the Communists who were at the receiving end of Mr Thackeray's
violent political practice. Offices of the Girni Kamgar Union were
regularly attacked by Shiv Sainiks and Communist leaders were brutally
assaulted. In June 1970, this violence against communists reached its
peak when Comrade Krishna Desai, MLA, was murdered by Shiv Sainiks. But
the communist movement in Maharashtra has survived in spite of these
physical attacks and constant threats.

Fourthly, the Shiv
Sena's politics was deeply anti-Dalit. This was made clear in the
physical attacks by Shiv Sainiks on the Dalit Panthers in the early
1970s leading to the death of Panther activist Bhagwat Jadhav; in the SS
stand opposing Dr Ambedkar's 'Riddles in Hinduism'; in the action of
the SS-BJP state government withdrawing all the police cases of
atrocities against SCs in Marathwada region; and most of all, in the
shocking police firing by the SS-BJP regime at the Ramabai Ambedkar
Nagar in Mumbai, which led to the killing of 11 innocent Dalit people.

Finally, there was the Shiv Sena's opposition to democracy and support
of dictatorship. This was made amply evident by Mr Thackeray's support
to the Emergency; his open glorification of Hitler; and the constant SS
attacks on journalists, cultural and literary figures and others who
dared to be critical.

This last point has been repeated today
with the arbitrary arrests of two young girls in Palghar and with the
attacks on the hospital of the uncle of one of them. They were arrested
because they, on social networking sites, expressed disapproval of the
bandhs of the last couple of days.

The CPI(M) Maharashtra
state committee condemns the arbitrary arrests of these young girls,
demands that the cases against them be dropped forthwith and further
demands strict action against the police officers who instituted these
cases and also against the goons who attacked the hospital. The
Congress-NCP state government must take immediate action and stop
pandering to the whims and fancies of the SS, as it has often done in
the past.

The CPI(M) has always, and will in the future,
continue to fight the chauvinist, communal, casteist and anti-working
class policies of the Shiv Sena.